Your Majesty... - Your Majesty.
French neutrality. Guaranteed.
How did you manage that?
I didn't, Your Majesty.
Well, the Kaiser thinks you did.
Did my cousin just dream it?
It is, Iikely a mistake was made
during my teIephone conversation with Prince Lichnowsky yesterday.
The German ambassador misheard you?
Possibly.
Or you misled him?
It hardly matters which, Your Majesty.
The point is, the Kaiser is now hoIding the wrong end of a very big stick.
One you handed to him.
Certainly it has landed us aII in a most awkward spot.
So you would now Iike me to disabuse the Kaiser?
We can arrange for a telegram to be sent to your cousin in the next twenty minutes.
Before that happens Iet me just ask the obvious question.
We haven't by some enormous stroke of Iuck...
...stumbled upon a formula that wouId actuaIIy keep the peace in western Europe?
Not with the French being in complete ignorance of what is being offered.
And they...?
And they wiII never agree to neutraIity
while their Russian aIIy is being threatened by Germany.
l see.
I wiII teII the Kaiser there's been a 'misunderstanding'.
'Misunderstanding'?
What, what does that mean? lt's such a British expIanation.
You tell me what it means. - l...
It's Edward Grey, isn't it? He's a deceitfuI cur.
l forget sometimes that the EngIish Ianguage...
...does not distinguish between 'duplicity' and 'diplomacy'.
'Misunderstanding' - what, 'we've changed our minds'?
l'm not sure that... - Get me MoItke.
Sir, pIease... - Get me MoItke.
I've been made a fooI of.
And l am disgusted by that.
Shake my hand.
My 'good' hand.
The EngIish are liars.
Now you can do as you will.
Have you had breakfast, sir?
I don't think so.
Might l arrange some for you?
How long do you imagine the railway platforms are at Duern?
An awful Iot of German troop trains appear to be Ieaving Cologne
and heading towards Duern.
lt makes no sense.
For four weeks now, ever since the assassination of Franz Ferdinand
we, in Europe, had been living with a Balkan crisis.
Serbia and its Russian ally raged against Austria and its German one.
Now, when isn't the Balkans in crisis, you might think.
lt's Bosnia, Foreign Secretary. - I think that might wait.
Rain is wet, sun dries you out, and the Balkans is a trouble spot.
These are facts of Nature.
In Berlin, at first, our Kaiser had been keen to stoke the fires in the BaIkans.
He thought this might give our Russian neighbour a nasty burn.
A quick, cIean war, over before the Russians even know it's begun.
So it took the special genius of GeneraI Moltke
to turn a Iocal confIict into an internationaI crisis.
MoItke wasn't interested in a smaII war in the BaIkans.
Can't be a powerful Russia and a powerful Germany on the same continent.
One has to submit.
He wanted something much bigger.
He wants to decIare war on France.
And that was when things began to change in London.
No longer were we bystanders.
We had an aIIiance with France.
Are you going to wait until France is vioIated before you act?
The Cabinet had no appetite for war, though
and told the Foreign Secretary to make sure the Balkan crisis didn't spread to the West.
And so Sir Edward used the telephone to broker some kind of agreement
with the German ambassador.
Sir Edward?
But... telephones, you know? Things get scrambled, don't they?
And therefore, last night...
To England.
...the Kaiser greatfully accepted a peace plan from London that didn't actually exist.
Hence the 'misunderstanding'.
l won't deny it, there was a little bit of panic here at the Foreign Office.
Not least because the morning papers were reporting that a torrent of capital and gold...
...had flowed out of the country over the last few days.
Chin up, Muriel.
Come on, everyone. Busy day.
And that's why the governor of the Bank of England, Sir Walter Cunliffe...
Ah, Crowe. - Sir WaIter. lt is good to see you again.
...along with Lloyd George, the Chancellor, had come to the Foreign Office
to persuade Sir Edward that it would be fatal to join the fray.
It's important the Foreign Secretary knows that if he gets us invoIved in a continental war
it will wreck the British economy.
There will be a degree of commercial disruption, of course...
The economy will be wrecked.
That's your opinion.
lt's the opinion of the Bank of England and the whoIe of the city.
Well there, David. The whole of the city.
Over a miIIion pounds' worth of gold left London on Thursday.
Ah, to be fair, WaIter, that's the German financiaI houses repatriating their capital.
But we are vulnerable to that. This is the whoIe point.
We are a trading nation.
We are?
Our best policy wouId be to let the French and Germans go to war if they need to.
We can stay out, and be the honest broker, Iiterally.
You... want us to be the honest broker?
You're making it sound Iike a crime, Sir Edward.
Do you know Eyre Crowe, here? Yes, of course you do.
So you know he's an exceptionally knowIedgeabIe feIIow
and he teIIs me that in the entire history of mankind
there is not a singIe instance where financiers have not panicked at the prospect of a war.
Isn't that so, Crowe?
Er, the PeIoponnesian War... - Yes, apart from the Peloponnesian War.
So, you see, Sir Walter, l have this odd situation.
Up in TrafaIgar Square right now, l'm being toId by Kier Hardie and the SociaIists
that a European war would mark the end of civilisation.
And here, l have a great banker of ThreadneedIe Street telling me the same thing.
I didn't mention civilisation. - Ah. True enough, you didn't.
l suppose that's where the SociaIists have the moral edge.
But l'm not a hopeless dreamer like they are, so excuse me if I take offence at that.
l am giving you some practicaI common sense.
So, you'd like me to announce to the world that Great Britain can't afford to fight.
That's your common sense?
Now you're twisting...
Nothing would more readiIy put an end to our great power status
than me saying that.
Have you ever seen Kier Hardie?
Are you asking me because l'm Scottish?
l saw him once when l was a wee boy.
My father took me to see him speak in Kirkcudbright.
Is your father a Socialist?
l think you'll have to ask him yourself, Muriel.
Of course, in Britain, the Socialist movement was very small, still.
But that wasn't true here in Germany.
Here they counted.
The ChanceIIor is running a IittIe late this morning.
l couId organise some refreshment?
No thank you.
They had power in the Reichstag.
lf the socialist deputies decide to vote against the lmperial War budget
well, there'll be no war because there'll be no money to fight one.
Why don't you just arrest aII these Socialists?
The Kaiser wouIdn't mind.
The Kaiser has personally never met a socialist
which is a miracuIous thing in itseIf
given that there are 6 miIIion of them in this country.
Even so.
Even so?
Remove their leaders and the rest will do as you want them to do.
The days of running Germany Iike a house of correction are over, Moltke.
These men outside are not our slaves. They are the cream of their class.
And, as inconceivabIe as you may find it
they will vote for your war credits if you reason with them.
I doubt it.
They fear and detest the Tsar. As all their kind do.
But they are not German patriots.
They wiII be, when you teII them about the Cossacks.
Half of them are Jewish, after aII.
Tell me, because I reaIIy don't understand.
Tell you what?
l know you don't want a war with France.
You couId use these sociaIists to stop one. Why don't you?
Because the cure wouId be worse than the disease.
Can you imagine what would happen to Imperial Germany
to me, not just you
if word got out that the Socialist Democratic Party had a veto on our abiIity to make war?
l hate them - every bit as much as you hate them.
More probably, because I know them.
They are disloyal, they are seIfish, and they are dangerous.
But a war will tame them.
Eventually, with some luck, it wiII exterminate socialism in Germany forever.
Thank you so much for coming, gentIemen.
Ambassador.
How many of your countrymen know...
...that you secretly committed them to defending the French channeI ports...
...from navaI attack by Germany?
What you have there is, of course, rather awkward for me at the present moment.
Yes, it is.
But it is a no sense a binding contract.
Just... an informaI arrangement we once had.
'An informaI arrangement we once had'?
I cannot go one inch beyond what the Cabinet authorises.
lf I do, l am gone, and that document means nothing.
If you do not act on our confidential agreement
you wiII have the German Navy in the EngIish ChanneI by the end of the week.
And you will have to expIain to your peopIe why there is no French Navy there to oppose them.
In 20 minutes there is a meeting of the Cabinet.
I wiII endeavour to describe...
Your obIigation to France. - ...the French predicament.
They've just voted. We have a majority.
In favour of the war credits.
Madness. They couId have saved us.
John.
Winston.
Lord Morley.
What bombs are you young gentlemen going to throw at us today?
When you think of the great Cabinet meetings of the 20th century
those that have been, those which are yet to come
can there ever have been one so fraught with meaning as this one?
Viscount Morley had first seen office in 1886, under his hero WiIIiam Gladstone.
And because he opposed anything which strengthened the State against the lndividual
he opposed war.
So did John Burns - on pacifist grounds.
Burns, hero of the London Dock Strike of '89
was the first working man ever to take a seat at the Cabinet tabIe.
Was he conscious of the fact?
...so I toId him, l am not a decorator I am a Iegislator.
Was he conscious of anything else?
And then there was David Lloyd George.
Lloyd George was the prize.
Did you get any sense this morning of which way David is moving?
None at all.
A man who made his name opposing our last war, against the Boers in South Africa.
Let's play this carefully. We don't want to antagonise him.
He was a politician who was loved by millions of people.
We have - as you know, because l have never concealed this from the Cabinet -
certain obligations towards our French aIIy.
Now these obligations do not commit us to war
simpIy because one of the parties to the agreement has taken up arms.
Should France, say, find itseIf in a war with Spain we would not be obliged to follow.
Do not treat us Iike fools, Sir Edward. You can say 'Germany'.
Yes, yes weII, in this specific incidence, of course we're taIking about Germany.
But my general point is that ParIiament need not be fettered...
...by a clause in a treaty she had no hand in making.
And nor will it. - Hear, hear.
But I wiII teII this Cabinet now - because now for the first time it has become reIevant -
that our 1912 agreement with France...
1904!
No, Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary is referring to its renewal - in 1912.
lt was minuted at the time and mentioned in this room.
The 1912 renewal is a document I drew up with Monsieur Cambon
which allowed us to divide certain operationaI responsibiIities
between the French and Royal Navies.
In this agreement the French were assigned the Mediterranean
and we agreed to secure the ChanneI.
The advantage of this agreement is obvious.
But the disadvantage, as Monsieur Cambon is now very anxious to point out
is that it Ieaves the Atlantic and ChanneI coasts of France compIetely unprotected by battleships
or would do so if we failed to join in a war that Germany was waging on France.
You mean the French are reIying on us to protect their ports?
ln a sense, yes.
There's no escaping it. lt is an unfortunate situation.
Our agreement with France has aII the obIigations of a formaI alliance...
No it doesn't! - But it does, gentIemen.
Think of it from the point of honour.
Edward Grey's honour. Not ours.
I hope they are the same.
The French agreement has all the obligations of a formal aIIiance but none of its advantages
and it's to say it contains no deterrent to any power thinking of attacking France.
How couId it? The agreement was secret.
lf only the Germans had known about this promise of yours to Ambassador Cambon!
They probabIy do. lt's us poor deviIs that've been kept in the dark.
Well, in fairness we've done well out of this agreement too.
lt certainly doesn't feel that way.
Oh, it has released us from having to patroI the Mediterranean, David.
No, the PM is right. l couId have asked for more money for more Dreadnoughts
to patrol the Mediterranean ourselves...
Hear, hear. - ...and not leave it to the French
but I know what John Burns here would have said to that!
I know your game. - You can't play it though.
Since Sir Edward has been Foreign Secretary he has assured ParIiament on severaI occasions...
...this government has incurred no firm commitments to France.
lndeed he has been proud - as we all have -
that Great Britain has avoided those entangIements with foreign powers
which could Iead us, almost blind-foIded, into war.
But now he appears to be teIIing us
that we do not possess the fuII liberty of our own decision-making after all.
Now, that is a very serious thing. One could aImost say he has misled us.
You have misled yourselves.
You all knew where the Anglo-French agreement was heading
but none of you opened a conversation around this table.
You did not want to know because you did not want the responsibiIity.
You Ieft Sir Edward with aII of that.
Which might be caIIed good judgement.
But to bemoan it now is a kind of cowardice.
How dare you?
Some of what Winston says may be true.
Even a bIunderbuss does occasionaIIy hit its target.
But it does not answer the wider question of why we shouId follow France into a war
brought about because her Russian allies decided to mobilise its entire army
against such feeble Austrian opposition, of all things.
There was no sense of proportion there.
The boy bloody scouts could defeat the Austrian army.
That's a ridiculous comment.
No, weII, John comes from Battersea
and they have some pretty ferocious boy scouts down there.
But Russia? Gentlemen, please, are we to be Ied into war by the Tsar?
Let us not forget we are talking about the Iand of the pogrom of the Siberian exiIe.
Rhetoric. - 'Rhetoric'?
Ten days ago over one hundred working men were cut down on the streets of St Petersburg
for the crime of joining a trade union.
WouIdn't you be better off in Trafalgar Square with the Labour lot
howling this rot from an upturned soap box?
You should get back to the Tory party!
That is quite enough!
We are here to taIk about the French predicament.
And what this government intends to do about it.
I wiII say this, Prime Minister
l will accept some of the Cabinet's misgivings
about the way the French negotiations have been handled.
By me.
They were done in good faith, l assure you.
But I wiII resign from the Cabinet this afternoon
if it prevents me from signalling Britain's intentions to protect French ports
in the event of a German navaI attack on the Channel.
lf that happens this government wiII be at an end.
Why?
Because l - and I suspect some others - wiII resign with him.
And then you'll have the Tories in.
Rubbish. They'll too busy gunrunning to Ulster.
No, John. l assure you they wiII be abIe to form a government
and they wiII have no qualms about taking this country into a European war.
With conscription.
Those are the stakes, gentIemen.
Please think upon them when you answer this question.
Does Sir Edward have your authorization to inform Monsieur Cambon
that we will honour our navaI agreement with the French?
Those who say 'yes'?
Those who say 'no'?
And one abstention.
Sir Edward, you may proceed.
In that case, Prime Minister, I tender my resignation.
l implore you to reconsider, John.
l'm from the peopIe, Edward, and I must speak for them
because their voices are never heard in the counsels of government.
That is why you shouId stay with us.
But the peopIe don't want war.
That's why l'm having no part in taking us into one.
But most people aren't like you. They're more Iike Winston.
l don't think that's true.
But it's a pity if it is.
lt's heId for now, Edward. But if we push them any further the Cabinet wiII divide.
I know.
And if that happens, the nation will divide too.
What are you going to do, David? You're the most important man amongst us.
No, you are.
There are miIIions of our fellow countrymen who will wait to hear what David Lloyd George says
before they make up their own minds.
I don't yet know.
You will have to decide. And quickly.
I'm not sure I have the stomach for another peace campaign.
No-one wiII ask you to mount those platforms again.
You did your bit over South Africa.
Let the younger men take up the burden this time.
But l teII you this.
It will be a gIorious thing for them to know that LIoyd George is on their side.
We have been misIed, David. The whole country has.
It certainIy Iooks that way.
Grey has run this nation's foreign policy without a single reference to ParIiament
and now he expects us to pull his chestnuts out of the fire.
I wiII likeIy resign from the government.
lf we enter this war.
ls the Fatherland in danger?
It is.
Can we fight on two fronts?
Easier than on one.
Say that again.
It is easier for us to fight on two fronts than on one.
This is what I hate in you, MoItke, your sophistry.
Keep it simpIe Moltke, hmm?
If we fight on one front against Russia we must improvise and that is aIways bad.
And aII the time we wiII be watching over our shoulder for France.
If we fight on two fronts, we enact a pIan we have been working on for nine years.
The SchIieffen plan.
Yes.
I thought the dust had settled on that?
We just keep bIowing it away.
The SchIieffen plan is aIways being updated your majesty.
Ninety percent of our army wiII be thrown at France, according to a strict timetable
while the rest hoId the Russians off - a relatively easy task in the first six weeks of war.
Six weeks? - Yes, six weeks.
The time it wiII take to knock out France.
Then everything wiII be turned towards Russia.
Trains have already been ordered.
Six weeks to defeat France?
Our scouting parties wiII first see Paris 40 days into the war.
lmagine those fortunate few.
I know what you're going to say next.
You're pIanning to go through Belgium. lsn't that so?
A lovely idea, Your Majesty. - 'Lovely'?
Your majesty, the Great Powers guarantee Belgian independence
not because we love each other but because we fear each other!
That's naturaI of course. - NaturaI. It's also efficient.
Respecting Belgian neutrality is what keeps us and the French from garrotting each other.
And l am custodian of a treaty with the King of BeIgium.
Which, tragicaIIy, you shall have to break.
Either Belgium steps aside or she is annihiIated.
Or, we keep our treaty with BeIgium and expose Germany to annihilation.
Success aIone wiII justify what we do.
How wouId we begin to explain our vioIation of Belgian independence?
Something has aIready been arranged on that.
Five days before, our ambassador in Brussels had received a mysterious package from Berlin.
'Do not open this telegram', an accompanying note said
'and only open it if, and when, you receive a further instruction from Berlin.'
Can you get me a whiskey pIease?
They have aII been considerabIy Iengthened in the last five years.
l'm sorry. Are you finishing a conversation with someone eIse or starting one with me?
Those north-western German raiIway pIatforms that you mentioned this morning.
I mentioned those to you?
You were thinking out Ioud. l was there.
So, l asked a friend at the Board of Trade to check his fiIes.
The station platforms at Dueren is now haIf a mile Iong!
That's an awful Iot of German hoIiday-makers
suddenIy very keen to see the delights of BeIgium.
Well done.
BeIgium.
Prepare for the deluge.
We have guaranteed BeIgium's neutraIity.
Well done.
In perpetuity with Britain and France.
Haven't you seen how things are working here?
That treaty is just a scrap of paper.
The last ever battle in history to be fought in Belgium would be Waterloo.
That was the epic idea contained in the treaty signed by the Great Powers in 1839.
But, evidently, it was not an idea that meant much to GeneraI Moltke.
Now is the time!
Sir Edward... - l know.
Ah!
Yes, the German ambassador arrived some time ago.
And the French ambassador is aIso here.
Any more?
And I must have a moment with you also.
Later.
Sir Edward, forgive me for barging in like this but...
Yes, indeed. Unexpected.
l do apoIogise Prince Lichnowsky
but l feeI l should fulfiI my appointment with the French ambassador.
Bien joué, mon brave.
You have done the right thing.
And what of a British expeditionary force?
Just two divisions on their way to France
would have a tremendous moraI effect on our peopIe.
PauI!
And a deterrent effect on Germany too.
Yeah, I know that's not a serious suggestion.
But it is.
Germany will decIare war on France in the next 24 hours.
AII France knows it.
The one thing that might stop them is you.
You credit Britain with too much power PauI
and it has made you irresponsible.
lt is you who can stop it.
You alone.
The power is yours.
Whom did l say was next?
Sir, before you see Prince Lichnowsky you must see this.
Please.
Are you sure?
l'm 100 per cent sure about the recent lengthening of the raiIway pIatforms
and l'm 95 per cent sure that German troops are heading towards the Belgian border.
But can we be certain they intend to cross into Belgium?
l mean, might there not be an innocent explanation for all this activity?
Certainly there might.
l can't think what it wouId be. But...
WeII, why don't I just ask him?
Of course, after Iast night, we can't afford a second 'misunderstanding'.
I take fuII responsibiIity for that.
Please don't. I rather think we egged each other on.
The damn telephone too. The thing was invented to make fools of us!
lt has not created difficulties for you?
Um, none. Yourself?
l don't know. No, l don't think so.
May I ask you an awkward question?
lf I may reserve the option of pretending l didn't hear it.
What would you say if I toId you I have certain reasons to believe
that someone in Germany, someone in a high command
is contempIating an invasion of BeIgium?
I would say that is impossible. We have a treaty with Belgium. As you do.
But... Belgium is a back door to Paris.
Belgium is a sovereign country.
But it is the back door to Paris. - It is also a back door to BerIin.
BeIgium makes us aII honest.
It makes the French honest. It makes Germany honest.
To vioIate Belgian sovereignty would be madness.
We have received reports in the last 24 hours
of French troops along the Givet-Namur road
and therefore, in the Iight of this violation of your territory
and of the 1839 treaty
we are obIiged to request of the Belgian government free access for our own troops
to engage the French.
You have 12 hours to respond.
This wiII be our casus belli. - It might be.
lt's an immaculate one too. No oil reserves, no coaling stations, no goId fieIds.
Just poor IittIe BeIgium - at the mercy of the German juggernaut.
Even the radicaIs wiII be filled with indignation.
If Germany invades.
The IegaI situation is not altogether clear.
We would probably still need an official request for assistance from the Belgian government
to avoid breaching the same treaty.
We cannot be more Belgian than the BeIgians.
SureIy they will ask for our heIp! - l have no idea.
PossibIe that the Belgian army will simply fire a token shot
and then Iine the roads whiIe the German army passes through.
'lf we are to be crushed' said the Belgian King, 'let us be crushed gloriously.'
That night his Government had resolved 'to repel every attack on its right'.
And King Albert himself composed a personal appeal to the Kaiser
translated by his German wife.
But there was no cry for help directed to London.
Not yet.
And, l'll be honest with you, not one man here wanted it to come.
What wouId they say if they truly knew what was happening to their world?
TeII me, Winston, what does it take to lead a democracy into war?
I do not know. It has never been done before.
We wouId be the first. In Europe at any rate.
lt means seeking the approval of those who are going to die in it, I suppose.
Our forebears never had that probIem.
And we record their names now. Those who fall I mean.
lt makes it so personaI.
Have you told your parents?
I haven't had the time.
You ought to.
l'm their only son, MurieI.
They'd be horrified if they knew that I was thinking of voIunteering.
But they'II have to know eventually.
No, not necessarily.
It may still bIow over.
It may not come to war.
So, Germany has requested free movement of her troops across BeIgium
and so far Belgium has refused to give it
and has not asked for our assistance and may never do so.
So we are where we were.
Except one power has signalled its intention to break a venerabIe treaty.
What was that shrug for? Do these things not matter?
Words on paper, composed long ago.
Words have to mean something.
Otherwise all that remains is the cannon.
And let us think of France.
l know you don't want to but consider her position.
Cowardice won't save her now.
She is about to be overwheImed by the might of the German army whether she fights or not.
Words do have to mean something. Of course they do.
But let us not pretend that our own ill-chosen words
would not have awesome consequences for miIIions of our countrymen.
We can fiII this room with nobIe thoughts about treaties honoured and solemn promises kept.
We can fIatter ourselves that we are the custodians of the internationaI law
and that Germany is a nation of brigands.
But think, think, gentIemen
think of the consequences that would flow from such high-mindedness.
We have not fought a European war for several generations
and, necessariIy, we have forgotten what it is Iike to do so
and this makes us brave and frivolous.
How does an army of several miIIion men defeat another army of several miIIion men
with all the metal they have these days at their disposal?
None of us knows - not even the generals, although they pretend to.
If the European nations come to blows tonight or in the next few days
I foresee a calamity Iasting years.
It will be a war without victors
which is the worst war imaginable
because the immense expense of bIood wiII, in the end, be for nothing.
Edward?
That's why I understand the temptation of neutraIity.
We're human beings and therefore the temptation's almost irresistibIe.
But our friend taIks as though there would be no caIamity if we stood aside
and let BeIgian pleas for heIp, shouId they come, faII on deaf ears.
WeII, what about the poIitical caIamity?
And what about the moral caIamity? - What wouId happen to our good name?
Who wouId ever trust us again?
We would have sacrificed every friend and every interest simply to preserve ourselves.
And what would Iie before us when that European war had ended?
A scarred continent, to be sure, with all the human destruction our friend has foretold
not Englishmen, it is true, but our neighbours.
And this too.
We wouId face a continent under the dominion of a soIitary power.
And that a miIitary one, dedicated to blood and iron.
We have an obligation to France - unwritten perhaps -
also to BeIgium - very much written.
Does that not mean something?
Let every man here search his own heart
and decide for himseIf whether he feeIs the puII of those obligations.
I do.
I wiII presently go to the House of Commons
and make the case for supporting our allies if it should come to war.
Then l should resign.
What can I expect if l stay on?
Everlasting quarreIs with Winston, certainly.
But also, with respect, l wouId be putting my name to a poIicy that is fundamentally wrong.
lt's sad. But... this government is foIding.
Now I have four resignations.
Beauchamp and Simon joined John Burns earlier this morning.
David LIoyd George.
What is your policy?
l wouId impress on Germany the importance of BeIgian neutraIity.
And if Germany is not impressed?
And BeIgium faiIs to ask for our help?
WouId you commit to war for the sake of France?
No.
You'II need haIf an hour to yourself, Edward?
Before you address the House.
Ah, yes, I would appreciate that.
Sir Edward! Sir Edward!
l have just been instructed by my government to inform you
that the German fleet will not operate in the EngIish ChanneI if Britain remains neutral.
lsn't that encouraging? ls there not something there for you?
Not really.
What if Germany were to abide by her treaty obligations to Belgium?
WouId Britain then agree to neutraIity?
No. - No?
Max, I have no idea if you are authorised to ask that question
I rather suspect you were not
but even if you were, l wouId still be required to say 'no'.
But that is irrational.
My dear friend, l rather think it is you who is no longer seeing things cIearIy.
l am offering you a formuIa. To save us.
You're asking Britain to reward Germany with a free hand against France
mereIy for fuIfilling its IegaI and moral obligations to Belgium.
l cannot do that.
Anyway, how do I know you wiII abide by your agreement?
I... - No, no, no, not you. Your chiefs.
They couId still march through Belgium tomorrow
and wreck Britain's relations with France forever
by pubIishing a text of some agreement struck between you and me.
Then for God's sake state the conditions under which Britain wiII remain neutral.
l will not do that either.
PIease heIp me. There must be something you can insist on.
That you do not go to war with France.
Germany wiII declare war on France this afternoon.
WiII you go through BeIgium?
l don't know.
Perhaps a corner will be clipped. l don't know.
You'll excuse me.
I have an address to make to the House of Commons.
Soon after Grey's address, Germany declared war on France.
Some pretext was invented
a French aerial attack on Nuremberg, l think.
lt wasn't true
certainly nobody in Nuremberg saw it.
Sir, I've the Iatest despatches from BerIin and Brussels.
Come here for a moment and Iook at this.
I have aIways loved this sight on a summer's evening.
l find it inexpressibIy consoling.
And I want it to last forever.
You'll be told there isn't a better time to be young
and that you are the envy of those too oId to fight.
Perhaps that's true.
Perhaps.
You know, the Iamps are going out all over Europe.
We may not see them lit again in our lifetime.
By mid-morning our 34th brigade had crossed the border into Belgium.
And King Albert of Belgium asked his parliament
'Are we still committed to our independence?'
'Yes, yes', came the reply.
The King of the Belgians then made his appeal to all the guarantors of Belgian neutrality.
These are the transIations. Two copies of each pIease, MurieI.
Is this it, do you think?
We heard it at midday.
David.
Prime Minister.
I do not think we are prepared for war.
The Governor of the Bank of EngIand assures me
that we wiII be very quickIy bankrupt as a nation
if we take up arms against Germany.
And aIthough he exaggerates somewhat he is undoubtedly correct
in saying that as a mercantile nation we shall suffer more than most
because of the agonies to international trade.
l believe also there are some people in this country
possibly even around this table
who will have been delighted by the Kaiser's decision
to violate BeIgian sovereignty this morning
for the simpIe reason that it coats their own seIfish enthusiasm for war
with a moraI gloss.
However
l differ from my now departed coIIeagues.
l am genuineIy frightened by the prospect of a rampant Germany
sitting in BrusseIs and Paris and on the Channel coast.
Do l care for BeIgium?
l fear for her, certainly.
She is a smaII nation, like my own
and she has rights which cannot be eradicated just because the eradicator is strong.
Do l care for the principle that internationaI law ought to mean something?
Yes l do.
There ought to be more of it, not Iess.
The German invasion of Belgium has changed everything for me.
The only sensible thing now
is for this government to send an uItimatum to the aggressors in Berlin.
ls there anyone who disagrees with that last sentence?
Well, there will be no opposition from the Conservatives or the lrish NationaIists
l very much hope there will no opposition from our own people.
Just one thing, Prime Minister. - Yes?
Do you not think we ought to consult the Dominion governments
before we issue an ultimatum?
The AustraIians and Canadians will have their own thoughts on this, I'm quite certain.
There is no constitutionaI need. They wiII see it as we see it.
You did the right thing.
None of us will survive this war. PoliticaIIy, l mean.
Within the hour the British government had drafted its uItimatum to the Kaiser
demanding the complete withdrawal of all German troops from Belgium by midnight.
That was midnight, Berlin time.
But the mind of our government was made up.
What we are doing to Belgium we have been forced to do.
Necessity knows no Iaw.
Good. Necessity knows no law. That is right.
If we think like magistrates we are dead.
The British think like magistrates.
LegaI is it? Not justice. They care nothing for BeIgium or the treaty.
They only care for power.
And how they hate it when we show our appetite to be equal with theirs.
What do you say, Bethmann?
Our army must hack its way through Belgium.
l believe it was Rousseau who said
'lt is a sort of folly to remain wise in the midst of those who are mad.'
And in those 37 days Germany was short of that kind of folly.
Can you take it next door?
I hear you've decided to join the Royal FieId Artillery.
I have, sir.
l think I wiII be Iosing a Iot of my young men.
Thank you.
Have you received your orders to report to your regiment yet?
Not yet, sir.
But you wiII.
I expect so, sir. Yes.
lt's not a bad life, the soIdiering life.
Yes, sir.
But I don't think you'll fall in love with it.
I have never seen myseIf as a soIdier, Iike some boys do.
I aIways hoped that under my stewardship
we wouId see Germany turn into a state with an army
rather than the other way around.
The Prime Minister is in there.
And Winston...
Of course.
You carry this burden aIone.
Yes.
You once criticised me for that. Too many secrets, you said.
It's how the game is pIayed. I understand that.
But it is too punishing for one man.
AII your successes we know virtually nothing about. They must remain private.
Otherwise they are not successes at aII.
But your faiIures may become common property. They beIong to the worId.
There is surely no hiding pIace from aII the scorn and viIification that follow?
I suppose that there comes a time, in a war dipIomacy
when nothing is left standing except principal?
Perhaps I shouId have travelled more.
Officially, you mean?
OfficiaIIy, personally, both.
I have never once set foot in Germany.
I don't think that matters.
l couId have taken my own measure of the place.
That's what the Foreign Office is for.
The world dissected by experts in every fieId
its vital organs dispIayed and expIained.
And now all those organs are failing.
What will it be like, do you think?
l haven't given it much thought.
Not the military side of things.
WeII, you've lacked the time.
l've lacked the experience too.
We aII lack that.
Except Winston.
Did he ever toId you about his charge with the 21st lancers at the BattIe of Omdurman?
I think he did teII me about it once!
What?
I think perhaps this war will be a IittIe different.
Ours became the war of the spade.
The first trenches were dug in the Marne valley at the end of August 1914.
There was no '40-day war'.
No triumphant gallop to Paris, just a murderous and terrifying stalemate.
And, of course, the war spread.
lt spread to the Middle East, to Asia, to Africa - and beyond.
It became the first world war.
By 1918, four Empires were in ruins and four royal dynasties ended.
The face of our continent was changed by revolution.
And death, it seemed, could never claim too many.
lt was always hungry for more.
Ten million died.
lt's too many for the mind to conceive.
Every single one of them mourned by people who loved them and missed them
with grief consuming half the world.
But here's a funny thing.
Austria and Russia, whose quarrel in the Balkans had taken everybody else to the edge?
They were the last to declare war on each other.
And when they did
nobody really noticed.